There is a little story not told till now about the return of Hannah and Ishah, daughters of Abiyah, almost two years ago. They had finally come home from the children’s home.

One young imma (mother) and her two little girls had a song to present.

First she told the story of how she and her girls had also been taken at the raid on September 5, 2013, but because of not being registered in Klosterzimmern – or in Germany at all at the time – they somehow were released at the end of the day. This young mother described some of her distress at trying to mother and comfort those children who were there without any of their parents that day.

After they were released, they were on the road for a long time. Her children didn’t understand and kept asking when the other children were coming. The faces of each of those children was right there in her mind. At some point she started to sing with them:

I said to myself what a wonderful day it will be when the children come back. I said to myself what a wonderful day it will be when the children come back. We will sing all day, we will dance all night on the day when the children come back.

(It’s a little children’s song that a sister in another tribe had written one time for her sister when she was coming home from somewhere.)

And so they sang this little song, and they sang and sang. And then they started singing it with the name of each child who had been taken – which is all of the children in both the communities in Germany. Somehow, on the road, the hope of this little song comforted them. And therefore she and her two girls had sung this song for Haninah and Ishah when they came home after two years of being away.

So when Merea was miraculously at her sister’s wedding, the king asked for this song to be sung. So the first sister and a few of the children jumped up and sang the song – and then EVERYONE joined in. We were singing and crying what a wonderful day it will be when Merea comes back. Merea and the two women educators who had escorted her to the wedding were touched with all of us at the wedding. As we say, we touched hearts.

And now the wonderful day has come. Merea is back! Our Father protected her heart! We are extremely thankful here about this. And we are praying for the release of more – all of our children.

Recently we published the rejoicing we experienced as a tribe and people last year over the ending of Merea’s captivity. Her heart – where was her heart after three long years? We had encouraging clues, but hardly one moment of privacy between parents and daughter for three years. Imagine that!

When she returned, though, she was like a “fish in the water” in the words of her wonderful imma (mother), Rachel. In another post, we mentioned the hope of a parable that one of us had seen in German spelt planted in a faraway land, foreign to all it had ever known.

Here is that parable…sit back and enjoy a good and gentle read, one full of hope and of the care of the Creator. It is told from the perspective of the spelt seeds themselves, and of all the strange things they encountered. It was written in April 2015.

The vast plain had dried just enough. But snow was on its way! Now they had to drive the eight hours south where a big seeder was waiting to place them into the black soil, as black as in their homeland in Klosterzimmern. They made it just in time, before the snow soaked them.

So now another race started inside of them. A spelt seed knows deep inside of it that it needs at least 50 cold nights, colder than +4C, in order to produce stalks and seeds, otherwise it would just become a green pasture with no fruit. In Germany they had plenty of these nights, more than a hundred! But now they have been planted with such delay. Are they still going to get enough cold and suffering to make their fruit?

They felt unusual the following weeks, but all of them sprouted and fulfilled their purpose. They fell to the ground and died to their old form. Yes, they gave themselves to the dying process. (We prayed again, morning and evening, for enough cold weather). Well, they did not experience the deep frozen soil they were used to, but it still felt kind of wet and cold, enough to get their chill. It rained and rained and the little creek beside their field rose up and flooded the fields, but their plot was just a little higher and was untouched by floods several times. Those seeds were supposed to bless the Tribes of the Americas, so lets see!So on went their life. They grew faster than usual, hardly any winter break! They just about skipped the winter and went straight into spring. But they felt that something told them to go against their own natural, inborn tendency that was telling them NOT to grow up without that cold they were used to. Did our Father tell them, for the sake of His people and the children of the tribes who prayed so faithfully for them, to grow their stalks and ears of grain anyway?

Many times our little seeds received visits from curious disciples, expectantly waiting for the first signs of making their stalks. It kept on raining plenty and much sun shone as well, making all the fields in the area growing better than ever along with our special crop. There was a special blessing on the area this year! So the miracle happened! In mid-December, mid-summer here in the southern hemisphere (the time they would have been under a cover of snow back in Germany), they heard the call and sent out thousands and thousands of stalks and shoots, growing up fast into little flowering ears of grain and developing tiny green seeds in them. It was so fast, just a matter of a few weeks!

A big hailstorm just went by their field, hitting the genetically modified (GMO) soy beans just beside them and chopping them into pieces. But our little spelt was safe and protected! But now they started to suffer – suddenly it was so hot for them! Used to the comfortable German summers and just coming out of their fast spring growth, they went through a great stress.

In early January suddenly all the regular rain stopped and it got hotter than ever, 37°C (100°F) for weeks, with strong winds from the desert in the northwest. Oh, how they did suffer! They watched the grains around them drying up, being harvested and trucked away, because they had been seeded much earlier than them. But here they were, still so green. And now all this heat!

They started loosing their green leaves, just their premature heads with their little green seeds in them sticking up in the air. But they knew deep inside of their unmodified make-up from their Creator that they had to go through it. Even being a little small and a little shriveled, they still developed their little germs under the protection of their thick spelt hull that kept them from totally drying up. Their starchy inside part suffered and was little, but they had kept the most important part, their ability to sprout and reproduce!

January 30, 2015

So in came the harvester of a neighbor, who miraculously helped us! All the fields around were already harvested long before. But now we were harvesting the last plot in the area, harvesting our little “delayed spelt seeds”! Were they really ready? Eagerly the disciples were waiting beside the field, taking them out of their hulls to see if they had maintained the purpose for their lives. YES! After making some sprouts, all of them still sprouted. Even the smallest ones, which really did not look like anything of a spelt berry, but more like a little brown grass seed. They had survived and showed the power of a unmodified seed – to continue on for the future generations and bless the Tribes of the Americas with its many future communities!

Could this be a parable for our children in Germany, who went through the greatest suffering in their lives just at the same time as the odyssey of these seeds? For they are those who have been truly dedicated and have received the incorruptible seed. Will it not endure?

And so it was that this parable, this prophecy came true. It came true for Merea, and it came true for Chaninah and Ishah, for many others, and in the end it will come true for all our captive children.

Last summer, on August 7, 2016, the wonderful family of Ohevi and Rachel was reunited with their daughter, Merea. This is part of that story, beginning with everyone waiting for her arrival after her court ordered release to her family and return to her community!

FROM MEREA’S HEARTHello everybody!I am so thankful for all your prayers in those three years.I am thankful for your encouraging letters.Thank you. I am happy to be home.Merea Kallah

Dear brothers and sisters,

We are so grateful that Merea is with us again. After almost three years in state custody all the rights were given back to us parents. We know we are in great debt to you all who prayed for us, wrote letters of encouragement and continued in faith.

It was so wonderful that without resentment and grudges we were able to spend a whole day in the home were Merea lived. Many educators came along to say good-bye. We truly made friends there. Now many want to come and visit us were we live: in the Twelve Tribes community.

Coming home Merea was welcomed with a big celebration. Even the whole clan of M. Zehrovice came for the feast on Shabbat. We spent a day of singing and dancing and had a few games for everybody to participate. Merea was there with us all, “like a fish in the water.” After that Merea jumped in to the busy week before the wedding. She participated wholehearted in everything that was going on.

We see the faithfulness of our Father in all that is happening. It is a real miracle how our daughter’s heart was kept. It strengthens our faith. We are well aware that we have to continue to cry out to our Father and turn our hearts to HIM and our children in order for them and us to be saved and to make it to the end.

Last August (2016), when Merea returned home, where her heart was, after three long years in captivity, a friend of the parents had this to say.

Our Father protected her heart!

My mind flashes back… we lived in Wörnitz. It was somewhere between 2014 and 2015. Ohevi and Rachel were allowed to visit Merea every other week. Merea’s older sisters, would always lovingly prepare some food for their short time together, along with little gifts of love. When they left home it was always a mix of feelings. “Bye… much grace for your visit…” Since there would always be a watchman who attended each visit, the family was hardly ever free to speak and act from the heart. It was so hard to touch hearts with Mereah and to be real.

I remember Rachel’s anxious thoughts, “Where was Merea’s heart? Was it still with us, with our God?” One evening Rachel and Ohevi came back from one of these crucial visits. Their faces were so bright, so encouraged. What had happened?

They had a little moment alone with Mereah in her bedroom, and Rachel discovered in Mereah’s cabinet little notes which Merea had written to friends in another tribe (but never dared to show them to her educators).

In these love-notes Mereah encouraged her friends to continue on in faith, to not lose hope in our God. Without the shadow of a doubt, this was proof of Mereah’s heart being still with us.

Another moment which fanned sparks of hope was when Rachel received a sweet card from Mereah at her 10th birthday in which she appreciated her Imma for giving birth to her in pain. How much our Abba desires we would take on His good traditions with our whole heart!

Now it was revealed – Mereah had received in her heart that tradition, something of true substance, a real way how to honor her parents.

When your child is gone, suddenly everything that’s part of our Father’s Way becomes so much more meaningful, precious, essential.

Havah and her little sister, Merea…full of life.

As a friend of Rachel and Ohevi, I’ve felt with them and shared with them (to some degree) their pain, their sorrow, the uncertainty what would be the end of that soul-ripping story.

Almost three long years passed by. Finally the day came where Mereah was standing in front of a judge, expressing her heart’s desire, her conviction:

I want to be with my parents! And I want to be in the place where my parents are – in the Community!

I always kept in my heart what my sister said about the shriveled up, tiny spelt seeds. Through a series of circumstances the first spelt was sown very late in the season, and the harvest of grain was a rather pitiful sight. Kernels so meager, seemingly so void of vitality. Oh, no! But her husband set up a test-field and sowed some of these new seeds to see what would happen. And what happened? After a few days the spelt-grass started to appear on the surface. It GREW! It had the LIFE!

The seed contained all the properties it needed for growth! It was the REAL THING! That was my sister’s comparison back then in her story: even though our dedicated children are undergoing a time of extreme circumstances, their hearts contain the life of our Father’s people. It’s implanted. Nothing, no outside influences, could take away what had been put into Mereah’s heart through her dedicated parents.

Truly, our Father protected Mereah’s heart. All honor belongs to Him,
the Giver and Preserver of Life!

“A very beautiful report, whose correctness I can confirm in many respects. The few times I have been a guest have given me enough insight into their wonderful wonderful life together. It is the warmth in the community that is completely genuine and natural and today has become absolutely rare.

“For example, I was not conscious of the fact that someone had wronged me. And yet I was approached about it and the person asked me, a guest, to forgive her because she felt her behavior was not have as fine as (probably) this person would have wished of herself.

“This makes an impression. This is not easy to forget.

“And it is therefore unbearable to have to witness how these fine people are being slandered almost day by day.

“…So, this report of the daughter from the Twelve Tribes here is understandably correct.

“She talks about the life in the Twelve Tribes in a way you will not experience any differently!!! I do not guarantee too much!!!”

A follow-up on one of our Families

Since September 5, 2013, many things have happened to our families once living in Germany. There has been a virtue to the things they have suffered and the losses they have experienced. They report a depth of trusting our Father and of learning to pray in ways that no lesser experience would have made possible. Here is one more chapter in the story of Abiyah and Rekah Schott, this one involving their second daughter, Chaninah. She has had several posts on this blog. Just search for Schott or for her name.

Abiyah announced one evening that his daughter Chaninah would make a covenant with our Master on December 31. We have heard how when she was in captivity in Germany that she counted every day until she and her younger sister (Ishâh) were released, holding unwavering determination that she would return to her parents.

She heard that if they would leave the community that she would be released, so she told them that she absolutely did not want them to do that, but that they should remain faithful and she would come back to them when she could. It has been evident from this family’s arrival in our community that she has a heart for our Master and is very loyal. Still, to make a lifelong covenant with our Master and His people calls for embracing the gospel in a genuine surrender. Her parents and she have been in preparation for this essential step.

Before going to the water, we assembled for an unhurried presentation by Abiyah, Rekah, and Chaninah. about her path up to that point, including the difficulties in Germany, and her confession. She mentioned several matters in which she saw clearly that she needed salvation and knew that our Master Yahshua could help her. It was clear that her sensitive conscience had done its necessary careful work. She would be forgiven much and therefore she would love much.

It was especially touching that she presented a poem for her parents that she had written, that she and her friends had set to music.

Verse 1

From the day that I was born

You raised me in His way

Dedicated in the way of Yahweh

Your unity made me secure

Your trust in Him helped me endure

Through the darkest, most painful time.

Chorus

Even when the struggles seemed impossible to bear,

You stood fast and did not compromise.

You loved our Master with all of your heart—

Because of your faith I am here.

Verse 2

As the waves of life came crashing,

You did not lose heart.

Into His hands you placed our lives.

Never doubting His lovingkindness,

Never doubting His salvation,

You said, “If not today, it will be tomorrow!”

(Chorus)

Verse 3

Now I will take on your heart,

Embrace the struggle by your side,

Letting my roots grow deep in the land.

The battle is not over yet—

We must endure, press on together.

I give my life to see His will be done.

(Chorus and Interlude)

(Chaninah’s Chorus)

Even when the struggles seem impossible to bear,

I will stand fast, I will not compromise.

Love our Master with all of my heart,

Standing in faith I will endure.

(together)

Even when the struggles seem impossible to bear,

We will stand fast, we will not compromise.

Loving our Master with all of our hearts,

Standing in faith we will endure.

Standing in faith we will endure.

She went eagerly into the frigid water with her abba and David, cried out, and has been radiant ever since, honoring her parents, joyfully serving in the work, and sharing worthy insights in the gatherings.